Power Rangers Psycho Impulse: Book Two: Count Zero
by The Amazing Shrinking Violet
Summary: A sequel to PRPI, Rider Paladin's not-so-recent latest take on the Psycho Rangers.  The Team expands with potential new recruits, new monsters surface, and a connection to the nearly-forgotten past threatens the Rangers with destruction. R&R.


"Power Rangers Psycho Impulse"

Book 2: "Count Zero"

Chapter 1: "Prism Impulse"

Disclaimer: The Power Rangers and the Psycho Rangers belong to Saban, and all respective license holders. Their human identities and support crew and the like belong to Rider Paladin. The concept for the identity of Psycho Silver belongs partly to Rider Paladin, and the concept for the identity of the other mystery character in this fanfic is mine. No profit is being made from this – this is my attempt at helping a friend out, by at least continuing something he started some time ago, with my own little spin, and hoping he approves.

Author's Note: This fanfic pics up from the end of Book One of "Power Rangers Psycho Impulse", so check that out before reading this, unless you want to be confused by everything going on here. I will also say the mystery characters have a connection to the Psycho Rangers' old enemies, the Space Rangers, though how direct a connection I won't say yet for spoiling the plot for all of you. With that said, on with the story.

* * *

><p><em>XIPHOS Base, Central Ops Room - 0800 Hours<em>

* * *

><p>The five Psycho Rangers, in their human forms, were assembled before Ceres and Deputy Sakurai, though, oddly, the Director was remaining silent for the moment. The reason for the silence came moments later when two young people – one male, one female – entered the room, wearing the same style of uniform as the Psychos, but both featuring silver trim and silver shirts. It was Robin who spoke first, curiosity getting the better of him.<p>

"Who are these guys?" he asked, giving the two a look. Ceres spoke up after a moment, a faint hard tone to her voice.

"These are two of our Ranger candidates...the best of them, in fact."

With that statement the five Psycho Rangers took better stock of the two newcomers. The male was attractive, in the style of a bishounen, as it was called in Japan, with exotic features, long dark hair, and, of all things, a gold scorpion hairpin in the bang over his eyes, as well as, on his left wrist, an oddly familiar grey device with a what appeared to be a blue M framed in gold as most of the surface, though half of it was tucked under his jacket sleeve. The female had killer looks, both facially and body-wise, and silvery hair and eyes, and fair skin, and an amused smile on her full lips, though she was also rather tall for a female, and had a definite masculine look about her, her facial features being rather androgynous for a woman. Micaela rolled her eyes as it soon became obvious to everyone as Robin began to stare at the woman, while the male candidate smiled ruefully.

"She has that effect on people, I'm learning," he responded in a calm, even tone, while the female gave him a shove. "I'm Jean Myer, by the way."

"Alice Hart," the silver-haired girl added, winking a bit as she ran a hand through her long hair. Ceres cleared her throat, someone impatiently, and the two fell silent, and resumed standing at attention.

"We're going to run a few tests on these two, those tests determining which will be more suitable to being the new Psycho Silver." the Director said, after a moment's silence. "Until we have all of the results, they'll both be staying in this base, and participating in combat exercises with you. However, in light of recent developments, I want some of you to take them into the city, and show them around...they're not from this area, and considering certain of you would prefer to go out more, this would be a good time to."

"I volunteer!" Robin said 'helpfully,' doing his best to check out the female candidate without seeming like the hormonal young man he was, though it was pretty obvious why he did so. Micaela, with an annoyed expression on her face, looked to the Director.

"I will go as well...to make sure Robin doesn't try anything with the new girl," came the yellow Ranger's reply, her thoughts on her teammate as obvious as ever. Robin managed an indignant look, while the silver-clad female let out a soft chuckle, and looked to Achala.

"Would you care to join us?" she asked, innocently enough, offering a hand to her in a polite manner. "I much more prefer the company of my fellow females...especially since they better appreciate feminine things."

The pink-uniformed female blushed a bit at that, but took the offered hand and nodded. "I suppose it couldn't hurt...for an hour or two, at least," the team leader said, even as the other girl's fingers lightly closed in around hers.

"Wonderful." Alice smiled sweetly, while Jean raised an eyebrow, and sighed softly.

"She's going to be a handful, I can tell..."

* * *

><p><em>New York City, New York<em>

* * *

><p>About fifteen minutes later, the Psycho Rangers (in their human forms) and the two new recruits were in the city. Since it was early, the traffic was somewhat less dangerous, though not many stores were open at the moment. However, Jean seamed satisfied with just aimless wandering around, and Alice seemed more content talking to Achala than anything, most of said conversation being hushed whispers with the occasional chucklegiggle/laugh thrown in every so often. Finally, the group arrived at the sight of the previous day's battle, and Jean eyed it with a frown.

"What a mess..." he remarked, as construction crews began to arrive for the day, to begin the rebuilding, while Shango nodded in response.

"Yes, it is. We saved many people, but nearly as many died in a mine raid during the battle."

"Well, hopefully with more Rangers, you'll have an easier time dealing with this sort of thing..." the young exotic man remarked, running his finger along the object strapped onto his wrist, looking thoughtful. "Though that's just wistful thinking, I suppose. There's only going to be one more Ranger, if the Director has her way...and it's not like there's any Power Rangers around in this day and age, sadly enough." Alice looked over at him with slightly narrowed eyes at that, and he laughed, before speaking again. "My father was something of a Power Rangers fan-slash-expert, considering he lived in the city where the first teams got their starts...though I know something about being a Ranger already from personal experience."

Before anyone could press the matter further, their communicators beeped, and Robin answered first. "Yeah?"

_"There's a creature attack of some sort in Times Square. Reports are conflicted, and we can't get any clear video of it. I want you all to respond, and the Silver candidates to return to base, for their safety." _came Ceres' voice. However, even as Robin went to respond, Jean took off, running down the street at surprising speed (though not as fast as the Psycho Rangers themselves could manage), and vanished around the corner of a building – quite literally, as, when the other Rangers ran there, he was out of sight.

"Slight problem, Director; Jean's disappeared...I think he's heading to Times Square himself, though I don't see what he can do on his own," Robin said finally, an embarrassed look on his face as he rubbed the back of his head. The other active Psycho Rangers all had their own looks and made their own sounds of dismay, before Alice released Achala's hand.

"I'll head back by myself...you five just make sure he doesn't get killed, or something...While I want to be Psycho Silver, I don't want to get the job because the other guy died doing something heroic/foolish." She nodded, and then began to quickly, though calmly, walk back to their headquarters. Achala blushed at the parting squeeze Alice gave her hand, but nodded before speaking.

"She's right. Let's get going, everyone."

With that said, they began running at super speed, arriving at Time's Square, which was now largely empty, save for a group of bizarre draconic (though different from the Slyphans or their usual foot soldiers) creatures tearing up the tourist attraction. After stopping, the five did their usual hand and arm gestures, and their callout, and morphed into their Psycho Ranger forms.

"Hold it right there, ugly!" Psycho Red called out, a growl to his voice. The apparent leader of the group, a golden-hued humanoid dragon with what looked like whiskers and metal wings, turned to face the Rangers, and let out a bellowing laugh.

"You are the Psycho Rangers, correct? Most impressive, for filthy humans!" He roared, his 'men' following suit, pounding their chests and throwing debris about, missing the Rangers by a wide margin, though on purpose. "You do not scare us, children! There are only five of you, and many of us!"

"Good thing they've got back-up, then," came a familiar voice as Jean emerged from a nearby alleyway, staring down the leader fiercely. The dragon took one look at him, and began laughing loudly again.

"You, child? You are weak...human...even more than your friends here!"

"That may be, but I've got a surprise for you, freak show!" With that, the young man began making a series of hand gestures, before pressing a button on the thing on his wrist, the middle section of the M popping up, revealing it to be a gold-framed V, at which point he called out, "Titanium Power!" In a flash of light, Jean was wearing a silver bodysuit with white gloves and boots with gold cuffs, with a gold Y-looking emblem on his chest, and a silver helmet with a gold framed black visor in the shape of a V, and a gold belt on his waist featuring a distinct logo. The sudden change took the Psycho Rangers aback, especially when the transformed Jean produced a weapon that looked like a hand-axe, and leaped forward, striking the lead Dragon in the chest. The lot of them roared in fury, and began pointing at him.

"A Power Ranger!" they crowed, moving to surround him, while the youth transformed the configuration of his axe into a blaster, and began to open fire, striking them in the chests and shoulders, knocking them all back and chuckling somewhat darkly.

"That's right. I'm not official or anything, but you can call me the Titanium Ranger," he responded, as the Psycho Rangers began to join him.

"I think we all have questions for you, Jean, but right now is not the best time to ask them," Psycho Pink said, quietly, as the six Rangers each took up a stance. The Titanium Ranger nodded, and changed his two-in-one weapon back into an axe.

"I'll be glad to answer them, as best I can." he responded, as the proper fight began. Each Ranger went up against one Dragon, Psycho Red attacking the leader with his sword, Psycho Pink taking shots at one of the farther back ones with her bow, while the Titanium Ranger did the same thing with his hand-weapon's blaster form and Psycho Yellow followed suit with her sling. Psychos Blue and Black were melee fighting with the last two, blocking their claw swipes and striking back.

"Man, these things are tough!" Red remarked as he traded blows with the golden-hued leader, slashing it across the chest while it attempted to strike him across the front of his helmet, though missing each time. At least, until Psycho Red got cocky and when electrifying his sword for a super-powered strike, the dragon showed exceptional speed and dodged, punching the Ranger in the helmet, knocking him back a few feet. "Well...that hurt..." he managed to say, as he struggled to stand, shaking his head to clear it, growling as he resumed his attack.

"Stubborn, isn't he?" the Titanium Ranger asked, conversationally, as he caught his dragon-creature in a headlock, and kicked it in the snout, following up with a strike from his hand-axe across the forehead, knocking it down with a pained roar on its part. "Then again, I guess you'd have to be in this business."

"Do you always talk this much?" Psycho Yellow growled, an unexplainable irritation rising within her as she listened to the 'unofficial' Power Ranger's banter, prompting him to shrug before kicking his opponent in the chest, back-flipping through the air after using it as a springboard, his motions carrying him to land, feet first, into the back of the golden dragon's head, knocking it for a loop before he went back to his own enemy.

"I don't normally have partners, so, no," the Power Ranger responded, starting to throw precise blows at his dragon's joints, disabling it within moments, before finishing it off with a blast from his weapon, the creature exploding in a shower of metal and rubber. "They're...robots!"

"Well, we'd kill 'em anyway even if they weren't!" Psycho Red responded, growling as he electrified his sword one more time, and feigned a slash to his opponent's chest, and, as it dodged, he ran it through, stabbing through its stomach and causing it to explode as well, rather anticlimactically.

"I suppose when you fight monsters, that's a good attitude to have," the silver Ranger responded in a dry tone, though there was some kind of undercurrent of wariness there, as he stood back to watch Psycho Pink and Yellow blast their two chosen enemies to pieces, the burning hunks of metal, circuits, and smoldering rubber hitting the battered, broken ground. "Nice work," he responded, giving them a "thumbs up" gesture, and simply shrugging off Yellow's frustrated growl. Pink just tilted her head to the side, indicating an accepting nod, and the four began to watch the final fights.

Psycho Blue was doing much the same with his axe as the Titanium Ranger had with his, however, considering he had no blaster function, he simply attacked with melee strikes and his special spinning attacking, slicing into the artificial dragon's chest, tearing through the rubber and causing deep furrows to appear in the metal under-chest, before he sliced it in two, stopping his spinning and inadvertently posing. The silver Power Ranger clapped his hands, startling the other young man.

"Good work, Blue. Good to have you on the team," he replied, cheerfully enough, before the head of Black's dragon went flying past, his crescent-tipped staff repeatedly striking the still-moving body, knocking off more and more pieces until it was reduced to its legs, which fell down after a few moments of comically walking in opposite directions. "Ouch."

"Well, aside from the new guy's big mouth," Psycho Red responded, as the six gathered in the middle of the mess, "he can at least fight good. I'd work with him again." The other Rangers nodded their assent, wondering if all Power Rangers were this seemingly-naturally capable at this sort of thing. However, the six young people were in for a rude awakening as explosions began to ring out.

"Well, you beat our advance troops, now it's time to face the rest of us!" And with that guttural roar, even more of the robotic dragons appeared, swarming towards the Psycho Rangers and their new ally.

"There's more?" Psycho Yellow remarked, dumbfounded, even as the six drew their weapons again, and prepared to attack. However, a red blur rushed past, and sliced through three of the horde, causing them to explode in a shower of sparks and metal. Four more were destroyed by energy bursts, colored pink and yellow, and the rest were destroyed by speeding black and blue blurs. When the explosions died down, only the leader of the reinforcements remained, turning to face the attackers...all of whom were in colored armor.

Instinctively, the Psycho Rangers felt something vile clawing up within them at the sight of these, as they looked oddly familiar, despite their appearance – each one was wearing the same basic armored suit, with multicolored rectangles going across a white bar on the chest, and white gloves and boots, with uniquely visored helmets – however, each one had a different effect to it: the red one had a cracked, though functional, helmet, and charred arms and legs, the blue had what looked like some kind of additional armor on the arms, legs, and chest, though it was broken-but-functional in places, the black one's armor was tinted a mismatching shades of grey-black and charcoal black, while the yellow had what looked like a silver left arm guard with a raised shield on it, and silver trimmed heels, and, finally, the pink one had spider-web cracks running along the chest and helmet of her suit.

"Who dares interfere with the glory of the Slyphan empire?" the dragon robot growled, only to be destroyed by the five's combined attack, their weapons combining together in an eerily familiar form, that also destroyed several cars behind the Psycho Rangers and their Titanium ally.

"These guys...look tough," said Ranger remarked as he readied his weapon, taking up a defensive stance.

"We're not here for you," growled the red figure, who sheathed his own sword, which looked like a cross between a broadsword and a blaster, the pink one having what looked like a blaster weapon with a dish mounted on the base of the blaster, the others all having what looked to be variations on the Psycho Rangers own weapons. "We're here to make a statement to this world's 'true rulers'...we're here to take over...and if you six get in our way, we'll easily destroy you...Power and Psycho Ranger alike."

"And why should we stay out of it, jagoff?" Psycho Red growled, attempting to charge forward, only for the Titanium Ranger to grab him by the shoulders and yank him back. "What the hell?"

"I don't know if you guys recognize what these guys are wearing, but I do...and from what I know, we don't want a fight with these five yet..."

"The Titanium Ranger is right," Psycho Pink finally assented, much to Red's offense, but not to the surprise of anyone there. "We'd be going into a combat situation unprepared...and to be honest, they're giving me a sick feeling..."

"You too, huh?" Yellow responded, that irritation in her voice growing even more than before, the sight of these five angering her even deeper than the Titanium Ranger's banter.

"We're going to leave now, children...but if you get in our way, we WILL destroy you utterly...you and that precious headquarters of yours," the pink one rasped, while the others chuckled darkly and menacingly. The stunned silence of the assembled Rangers before them prompted them to continue talking. "Oh yes, we know all about your little organization...we know far more than you do about your enemies, as well...and if you stay out of our way, we'll destroy them for you...and then you can worry about dealing with us."

"It's a good offer, brats," the yellow one said in a smug, superior, AND sinister tone, cracking her – it had to be a her, with the shape of the armor, though the distortion of the voice made it hard to tell – knuckles, and then rolling her shoulders. "Take it, or we can kill you now and burn this city down around your corpses."

After several moments of startled silence, Psycho Pink decided to speak. "We shall...take your offer."

"What the hell? You're kidding me, right? Let's just take these guys out!" Psycho Red attempted to lunge forward again, only to get yanked back once again by the Titanium Ranger, who was joined this time by Psychos Blue and Black, the three of them holding Red firmly in place. "Let me go, you freakin' morons! This is what we do! We take out the monsters!"

"We'll ignore that remark for now, punk," the black-armored figure responded, wagging a dark-grey finger at Psycho Red, a sneering tone to his distorted voice. "Your boss is clearly a smart one...you'd do best to take her advice, and DROP IT."

"Bye for now," blue remarked with a dark laugh, the five figured vanishing in colored bolts of light, leaving behind the five Psycho Rangers and their Power Ranger ally, and a large number of dismantled robots.

"Could you feel that?" the Titanium Ranger asked after several moments of silence, a somber tone to his voice. Psycho Blue nodded, as did Psycho Pink. "They reeked of evil...and insanity."

"And how can you tell, smartass?" Psycho Red finally extracted himself from the grasp of his comrades, glowering angrily at them. The Titanium Ranger sighed, and raised his visor, revealing a semi-covered face beneath, his clearly visible upper face fixing Red in place with an equally-as-fierce glower, which silenced Red down somewhat.

"Ever since a couple years ago, I've had sharply honed senses...and while I can't explain it, I can feel things like this...I can sense evil, basically...and those five gave it off like YOU give off the aura of an inexperienced brawler." The last part was intentionally meant as an insult to Red, who just glared hatefully at the other young man. "I think we should head back to base...Director Lockhart's going to want to debrief us, and I'm probably going to have to explain about this." He indicated his Ranger suit, even as he took up a stance, and de-morphed, a shower of silver and gold sparkles falling away from him, back in his human form as Jean Myer. The Psycho Rangers followed suit, and reverted to their human forms.

"Jean has a point," Achala said, somberly as well, deep worry in her eyes and on her face. It was at that moment that their communicators started beeping again.

_"Rangers...I want you all back here at once...and Jean, we're going to talk about disobedience in the field, even though you did prove quite helpful today," _came Ceres' voice, as expected, the six nodding as Achala spoke for them.

"Of course, Director. We'll be back as soon as we can...considering Jean has no super-speed." With that, the six young people began to make their way back to the XIPHOS secret base.

* * *

><p><em>XIPHOS Base, Central Ops Room, 1000 Hours<em>

* * *

><p>After returning to base, the six Rangers stood at attention before the Director, and were debriefed. Jean explained how he received his Titanium Morpher a year previous, the voice recognition set to his voice, with instructions on how to use it included, saying it was a gift from his mysterious benefactor. Ceres decided to look into that end of things, and dismissed the six. As they began to file out of the room, Alice walked up, and linked hands with Achala, surprising her.<p>

"I saw the fight when I got back here...you guys were pretty impressive...especially you. You've got them trained pretty well...or at least you guys are great at improvising," the silver-haired beauty said, grinning softly as she looked down at Achala, being around a foot taller than her, and tilted her head to the side. Achala simply blushed, unused to the forwardness of the girl...who seemed even more forward than Robin himself...which was saying something.

"Thank you...Alice. We've had some prior experience as a team, and we've been training to work together as a better team as well...It's the Director's idea, and it's a good one...and while we have seen what Jean can do today, it is clear that he shall have to join us in our training, even if he doesn't become the latest Psycho Ranger...as any ally that can fight that evenly with the enemy will be a hard resource to pass up." Achala said, all at once, which prompted a delighted giggle from Alice. "What did I say?"

"I just think it's cute...I haven't met anyone like you before...but then, I don't travel abroad to the region you're from...I'm sure they're all as shy and proper and formal as you...though probably not as cute." The young woman winked playfully, a chuckle escaping her lips again as Achala flushed softly.

"You're...quite odd for a female, Alice," she finally said, her hue returning to normal after several moments. The Silver candidate just shrugged innocently, then chuckled.

"I've always been unusual...in more ways than one...Maybe sometime we'll get close enough that I'll get to show you just how unusual all of me is..." She said, in a teasing voice, embarrassing the Ranger leader again. "I can't get over that. You have to be the cutest person I've ever met." A bit forward, perhaps, but something about the young woman made her hard to resist; an almost magnetic pull she gave off, that attracted everyone around her...or Robin was just being exceptionally hormonal lately...though Achala had to note that Alaric was staring a slight bit too at the young woman as well, though Shango was being far more polite and proper than the other two had been, owing to the way he'd been raised, and his cultural background.

"Oh my," was all the Indian girl could say as she accidentally giggled, unable to resist, though somewhat surprised at her own reaction.

"I see I'm starting to win you over," Alice remarked, in an amused tone, as she gave the other girl's hand a gentle, friendly squeeze, and nodded lightly. "I'm only kidding...well, partly. I WOULD like to get to know you better, of course...But we can take it plenty slow." The girl was speaking in earnest now, wearing a more even, calming smile, Achala feeling oddly weak in the knees as she looked into those unique silver orbs, which sparkled in the overhead light, as did her hair.

"Are...are those your real eyes?" the Indian girl finally asked, at a loss of what else to say. Alice laughed, and nodded.

"They are, yes. A rare condition I have...the treatment changed the color of my hair and eyes, but I'm still alive, and all in one piece, so I can't complain," was her reply, as she regarded Achala closely, the two beginning to walk down the hall after a few moments. "I hope you're not complaining about their color...it would hurt me if you did."

"No, not at all...I think they are beautiful, in fact...as is your hair...and...the rest of you," the girl said, quietly, reaching up to lightly take a strand in her fingers, rubbing it lightly and marveling at the odd-though-not-unpleasant texture of it. "It feels strange...but nice."

"Part of the treatment caused it to turn out that way...I'm glad you approve. I'd hate to think our budding friendship would be ended because my hair felt unbecoming to you." Alice bowed lightly, doing a friendly mock curtsy with her free hand, tilting her head as well. "When we're closer, I'll better explain things to you...right now, though, a girl has to have her mystique."

"I understand," the pink Ranger nodded, as the two continued to walk, somewhat aimlessly.

* * *

><p><em>XIPHOS Base, R&amp;D Chamber - 1200 Hours<em>

* * *

><p>Jean looked around the room, marveling at the holo-screens set up all over, his hands resting on his hips, elbows pointed outwards from his sides, his morpher wrist bare, as Ceres and Deputy Sakurai had said morpher on a lab table, and were scanning it thoroughly. Finally, for the first time in the ten minutes since the examination started, Ceres spoke.<p>

"What do you know about this morpher?" was her first question.

"I know that it came from a now-defunct US government project known as Lightspeed Rescue, which was the first public team of Power Rangers, in the year 2000. It belonged to the Titanium Ranger, Ryan Mitchell, son of the man in charge of the program. The team stayed active until around ten years ago, when it was shut down owing to suspicious circumstances...perhaps owing to our Slyphain friends' intruding in our government." Jean shrugged, now crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned back against another lab table, and looked thoughtful.

"Our scans show that it requires a great deal of bio-energy to run...what do you know about this?" was Ceres' second question. Again, Jean shrugged, and began speaking again.

"The Titanium Morpher was originally too powerful for a normal human to withstand – the Red Ranger of the team, Carter Grayson, was the first person to use it, and it nearly killed him to activate it. It was later stolen by Ryan, who was, at the time, working as an agent of Lightspeed's enemies, which are only identified by the files accompanying my morpher as 'demons'. Ryan had been altered by these 'demons', and was able to sustain the transformation. I'm assuming that the problem with the morpher was fixed, considering I can use it without any harm."

"Interesting...very interesting indeed. So this would be one of the first six human-made Morphers...while it's certainly not up to our standard now, I'm absolutely amazed it's still functional...and that it's powerful enough to keep up with the Psycho Rangers," came Ceres comment, surprising Sakurai and Jean.

"Director?" Miyuki asked, blinking once, then twice.

"We have yet to carry out our tests on the two of you, but you've already shown competence at fighting, and you do have experience, if you're being completely honest with us," Ceres remarked, looking up from the morpher, giving Jean an intent look, the exotic features of the young man turned up in a soft smile.

"I am, yes. I just didn't think it prudent to publically announce that I was the new Titanium Ranger just yet...I wanted it to be a surprise. Plus, I didn't think you'd consider enlisting my services to help fighting this invasion if I already had a morpher."

"That's a good question...how DID you know about the invasion?" Sakurai asked, a curious tone to her voice. Jean simply shrugged again, and smiled some more.

"I've run across the Slyphain and their friends before, though only once or twice. I even know the other group's name," he replied, offhandedly, startling the two women quite a bit with that.

"You do? How?" Miyuki asked, eyes widening a slight bit, surprised that a seeming amateur could've learned this even before joining XIPHOS.

"I beat it out of one of them. They call themselves the Simorgh. I know some of their general plan, but I wasn't able to get much; their back-up finally showed and fried the one I was questioning while trying to fry me. I also found out about the Slyphain from them...though because I was operating on my own, without any back-up team or ground crew, so to speak, I was only able to interfere in one or two more of their local operations, in the California area – one was a weapons shipment they were hijacking under the guise of foreign terrorists, and the other involved the theft of rare gems carried out under the same pretense. Then I was contacted by you lot, owing to my scores in Quadra Cell – which I figured was more than a video game, in fact, but decided not to look into it too much, since I was busy busting up low-level crime and the occasional monster fight – and when I heard the name and purpose of your organization, I realized you were dealing with the same thing I wanted in on...and here I am." He opened his arms, still smiling in a soft, sincere tone, the light glinting off his scorpion-themed hairpin.

The two older women took this information in, and shared a glance, before Ceres nodded to Miyuki.

"In light of this information, even if you don't make the selection process for the Psycho Silver morpher, we'd like you to stay on with XIPHOS to help combat the dual invasion," the Director said, after a few moments wait, the smile on Jean's face widening some.

"I'd be glad to offer my services, Director Lockhart, Deputy Sakurai." He bowed respectfully, before looking back up at Ceres. "Would you...mind if I had my morpher back?"

"Certainly. We're done our scans; we just need to go over the information more thoroughly...we may even be able to incorporate some of the results into our own Psycho Program." With that said, Jean nodded, and walked over, picking up his morpher and strapping it back onto his wrist, partially concealing it under his sleeve again.

"It's good to know I've been of help, Director. What should I do now?" He gave her a respectful salute, prompting a slight smile from the older woman.

"Deputy Sakurai will take you to your new quarters, where you can unpack your belongings. Then, in an hour, I'd like you to report to the training room with the other Rangers, so we can start incorporating you into our team strategies, both as the Titanium Ranger...and as the Silver Psycho Ranger." That slightly startled Miyuki.

"Director, are you sure?"

"We should test the Silver Morpher at some point, and considering Jean can use a morpher that he admits and that our scans show is more powerful than one would believe at first, I have no doubt he could successfully utilize the Psycho Silver suit and powers. However," she paused at that, waiting for the other two to pay more attention to her words, "I'd also like to test Alice with the Psycho Silver morpher, and test her compatibility with it. My final decision will be based on which of you is the more capable as the Silver Psycho Ranger, and, if you have no objections, if you're chosen, we'd like to keep your Titanium Morpher on hand, in case Alice lives up to our expectations."

Jean paused at that, but nodded after a few moments of thought. "I have no objections...provided that, when this crisis is taken care of, she returns my morpher to me...though if there are any adjustments to be made, let me know...I have a general idea that it's safer than it used to be, but I wouldn't want to risk a future teammate's life on my general idea." Ceres nodded at that.

"I agree. As far as I can tell, with these preliminary results, and Alice's own medical data that we went over earlier, she has a good chance of being able to operate your Titanium Morpher, for at least limited stints. We'll have to obtain the Lightspeed original technical specifications for their morphers, however, and do our best to make it even safer. It always pays to have a good back-up on standby."

"I agree completely, director," came Jean's earnest reply, as he ran a finger along the blue-gold-and-grey surface of his morpher.

* * *

><p>End Notes: This is the ending of the first chapter of my sequelfollow-up to Rider Paladin's roughly four year old "Power Rangers Psycho Impulse: Book One". His original idea for his follow-up is more or less lost to us now, save for the all-important character development, as he lost his interest in continuing the story, and even has plans for a new-new Psycho Rangers story that we should all anticipate with great eagerness. This story is thus nearly all my idea, with, of course, great input from RP himself, who I consult on everything I write set in his universes. I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it, and as much as you all may enjoy my other Tokusatsu foray, "Kamen Rider Dragon Knight Climax Heroes"...which I CAN say will have a Power Rangers crossover at some point...but not with this story here.


End file.
